Dimitrov disappointed as he crashes out in the 1st Round - UBITENNIS

Dimitrov disappointed as he crashes out in the 1st Round

By Cordell Hackshaw
5 Min Read

TENNIS ROLAND GARROS – The 11th seed Grigor Dimitrov crashed out of the Roland Garros in the first round against Ivo Karlovic. With 22 aces the Croatian won 6-4 7-5 7-6(4) to qualify for the 2nd round where he will face Austrian Andreas Haider-Maurer. Cordell Hackshaw

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As a top ranked player, facing Ivo Karlovic of Croatia in the 1st round of a major is a very tricky situation. He is well over 2 metres tall (6’11”) and gives you no rhythm whatsoever on court as he favours shorter points instead of the popular dueling from the baseline. One need not mention the Croatian infamous near unreturnable monster serves and his persistent use of the almost archaic “serve and volley” style of play. The 11th seed Grigor Dimitrov knew all of this going into his 1st round match up with Karlovic. They had played on two previous occasions, most recently a couple of weeks ago in Rome where Dimitrov emerged victorious in straight sets. The bitter taste of that defeat was perhaps on Karlovic’s mind because he was relentless throughout the match denying Dimitrov any chance of gaining the momentum. In the end, Karlovic avenged his recent loss 6-4 7-5 7-6(4) against the young Bulgarian.

It seemed as though Dimitrov was not prepared for this match or perhaps a bit overly confident; never considering the possibility of the upset with his recent win. He was mostly passive in the match never looking as though he had a winning game plan in mind to get pass Karlovic. He mentioned in his post-match press conference, “I was very surprised, because the match in Rome I believe was just really different. His serves was not as accurate and volleys were not the same…Honestly, I did not expect an outcome like that one today..” In the 1st set, they remained on serve until the 7th game when Karlovic became aggressive on the return and earned two break points. He converted one of them for 4-3 and then forced Dimitrov to serve to stay in the set down 3-5. In the 1st set alone, Karlovic was winning 85% of his first serve points and a staggering 75% of his 2nd serves. Thus, there was no question that he was not going to serve it out to take the set 6-4.

Despite dropping the opening set, Dimitrov still appeared as though there was no sense of urgency to shift the momentum in his favour. He had his lone break point opportunity of the match in the 4th game of the 2nd set but could not convert. They remained on serve to 5-5. At this point in a match, great players raised their level of play and shift fortune in their favour. However, inexperience was telling in Dimitrov’s game for he allowed Karlovic to be the aggressor again at this crucial stage. Karlovic earned himself 2 break points and Dimitrov offered up a double fault to give Karlovic the chance to serve for a huge 2-0 sets lead. The Bulgarian looked as though he was going to break Karlovic to push the 2nd set to a tiebreaker at 0-30 but he then became timid from then on. Karlovic took the set 7-5.

With such a huge lead in the match, Karlovic was even more confident on his serve in the 3rd set. He was 22/22 on first serves and 8/14 on second serves. This served him well in the decisive set’s tiebreaker as neither player faced a breakpoint in the set. Karlovic took the breaker 7 points to 4, sealing the deal with his 22nd ace of the match. He moves through to the 2nd round 6-4 7-5 7-6(4) upsetting the 11th seed. Karlovic will face Austrian Andreas Haider-Maurer who came from a 0-2 sets deficit to win over Daniel Brands of Germany. Dimitrov on the other hand will try to remain positive, I’m not putting my head down. It’s just going to motivate me even more, and I’m going to come back even stronger. Actually, that gives me extra time for me to rest a little bit and just get ready for the upcoming weeks on grass. That’s something really exciting to look forward to.”

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